SG day at CP 7/12/03

Jeff

Sunday, July 13, 2003 8:04 PM

It was kind of neat for a change to go to a Web-related event at an amusement park that had nothing to do with CoasterBuzz. Stephanie and I are members of a site called SuicideGirls.com, which is I suppose a porn site (there are pictures of semi-naked girls there) but really more of a community of people that have a minority opinion of what style and fashion mean in our culture. Lots of piercings, tattoos and fabulous hair. With online journals and personal photo albums, the emphasis is more on the members, I think. How many standard porn sites consist of a subscriber base that is about half female?

We got a call Thursday that one of the girls from Chicago needed a place to crash, so she and her boyfriend showed up late Friday night. We were also going to drive one of the locals who needed a ride. I guess that made us the designated Cleveland-area SG transport service!

When we got there, we were met with a number of friendly (and pierced) faces, as well as lanyards with nametags and profile pictures. It felt a lot like an enthusiast event at that point! It was at this point that I also drew a parallel to the enthusiast scene.

Here we have a bunch of people who have some similar interests in the way of music, fashion, politics or whatever. This does not however mean that everyone is automatically going to hang out and talk with each other all day long. The group of 25 or so split up into four or five groups, actually, and that was OK.

So why can't enthusiasts do this? I mean, just because you saw my name on some stupid Web site doesn't mean I want to be your best friend. In my case, I'm just happy to spend some time with my wife since we often have such different schedules. The SG group was OK with this. We spent the day with our house guests and met the rest of the group at the designated times, but pretty much left it at that.

So anyway... regarding the rides...

The first plan was to hit Millennium Force's Freeway line, but with it backed up to Red Garter, and given that they were starting late, we decided to ditch it and take our chances with the line. We worked around to Gemini after stopping for french fries. It was running well, and the crew did an uneven dispatch just to ensure that a train of rowdy look-at-me frat boys would not be in the train that "won" the race.

Magnum is again running so well this year. In fact, I'd say it's the most consistant it has been since I started paying attention to such things. Compliments to the maintenance department on that ride.

We then worked back to Mean Streak before we had to meet the SG group at Snake River Falls for a wet t-shirt contest that would never happen. Mean Streak wasn't horrible, surprisingly enough, and we got a little nice airtime in the back seat.

After the meeting at SRF, we worked up to Midway Market for lunch. Here's something I never noticed before... we went in to eat for $10, and by the time we left, it had gone up to $13. I was not aware they changed the prices mid-day.

Onward to the arcade where we knocked out a game a of DDR. With two machines there now, they're still always in use, and there are always crowds. We got some evil vibes from some parents because they thought we cut off their little girls, but had our quarters up on the machine before they got there. What's the deal? People have been putting coins up since early pinball days, long before Pac-Man even. Did they think the other people were putting them up there for decoration? Anyway, for a change, we actually looked OK doing six-step songs up there. No real hot dogs around.

Onward with our goth couple to Corkscrew to say "hi" to STchick Kara, who is a peddle-stomping machine. The ride is still pretty smooth for its age, and the air on the pre-loop hop is still impressive.

Dragster was open after a late start, being closed the day before apparently because the tensioning pulley broke and the slacked cable caused havoc on the brake fins and launch sled. They were launching pretty consistantly with five trains. The line exceeded the queue and spilled out on to the midway all the way down to the station, so we skipped it.

We hit Iron Dragon next which felt a little smoother than usual. The ride has lost something since removing trees for Dragster, but the dip past Dragster's exit is actually kind of neat since people are so close to the ride.

We headed over to Millennium Force where we found a fairly reasonable queue, probably an hour length. At this point I was starting to burn out, but was somewhat invigorated after my ride. What a difference since the early morning ride I had a couple of weeks ago. I knew we were in for a treat when you could tell just by looking the train was flying through the last turn. I think MF will be my favorite ride for a long time.

With a little time to kill before our last meeting, we hit Disaster Transport where we waited 20 minutes behind some drunk Barbie who was more amused by the $1 3-D glasses than any child I had ever seen. She went on about them with her drunk friends the entire time were in line. If I didn't know better I'd guess she was on crack, too.

We ended the day with a brief wait on Raptor. I tell people all of the time... ride Raptor around dinner time, between 6 and 8. The line builds to two hours in the morning and people wait in that line, then later you've got waits under 30 minutes. This was even a 30,000+ people day at the park, with cars out to the toll booths.

After meeting the SG group one more time in the picnic area, we said goodbye and headed home. Just as with CB, it's kind of interesting to meet some of the personalities in person. We had a good time hanging out with Gwen, even if she was surprisingly very shy. All in all a good day for CP in July, something I usually try to avoid.